Spring preview 2015: politics, cookbooks, and more

Chronic insomniac RM Vaughan put his bleary hours to good use with Bright Eyed: Insomnia and Its Cultures (Coach House Books), observing how our productivity-obsessed, sleep-deprived lifestyle affects creativity.

Is it possible to solve issues like obesity, mental illness, and climate change by walking away? Ottawa writer and editor Dan Rubinstein considers the power of a single step in Born to Walk: The Transformative Power of a Pedestrian Act (ECW Press).

For CBC Radio columnist Mark Schatzker, The Dorito Effect (Simon & Schuster Canada) is more than just sticky orange dust left on fingers: it’s the long-term impact of chemical flavouring on our groceries.

Neuroscientist and former addict Marc Lewis proposes that addiction is not a disease, but a learned adaptation to emotional needs in The Biology of Desire (Doubleday Canada).

More fun than a Mentos and Coke rocket, biologist and Guerilla Science co-founder Zoe Cormier’s Sex, Drugs and Rock ’n’ Roll: The Science of Hedonism and the Hedonism of Science (Da Capo Press) upturns the scientific side of pleasure. The book, which has already received praise in the U.K., where the Toronto writer now lives, suggests that studying our naughtiest impulses has furthered intellectual progress, and explores why neuroscientists are right in their obsession with psychedelic drugs.